Everyone had been sitting around in the waiting room for over an hour and a half, and nobody had come out to say anything concerning Keith's condition. Lance was about ready to beat down the door to go see for himself, but Shiro was the only one stopping him from doing that.

" Lance, I'm sure someone will be out here soon, okay?" Shiro said, though he was having trouble holding himself together.

" What if- what if Keith is..." Lance looked down, letting his lip quiver as he found himself not able to say it.

" Keith is strong. He'll make it through this." Allura sniffled while placing a hand on Lance's shoulder.

Shiro coughed, stifling any tears that he could've cried right then. This was his brother. His responsibility. Keith had been the only family he'd had for a very long time, and now for all they knew, the doctors could've been drawing straws to decide who was going to tell him that he was dead. He prayed that Keith was still breathing, and at that point nothing else mattered.

" I can't believe this..." Pidge muttered, reaching under her glasses to wipe her puffy, tear filled eyes. " If we would've gotten there sooner..." She was shaking.

" We did everything we could, we called, we ran the whole way there..." Matt had an arm wrapped around his sister. " At least we got there before the same thing could happen to Lance." He was trying to be strong for her, but he was straining himself by not crying harder.

" They don't deserve this! Acxa didn't deserve that! Lotor needs to die!" Pidge shouted, voice cracking painfully.

Lance soon found himself pacing about the room, wiping away his tears with his sleeve. He looked like he hadn't slept for days.

And that's when the door opened. Out walked a stout man wearing a white lab coat, and he had a stethoscope draped over his neck. Everyone who was sitting in the waiting room shot up anxiously.

" Doctor, how is he? Please, Keith is okay right?" Shiro got close enough to make him uncomfortable, but he refrained from shaking his shoulders desperately.

Lance stood there in a daze, letting his face sink even further down. Everything seemed to sluggishly move around him, like life was in slow motion until the doctor opened his mouth to speak.

" Who out here is Mr. Kogane's immediate family? I can only disclose information to them, what they do with the information after that is up to them." He said.

Shiro gestured to Lance.

" Us two." He said, and Lance whimpered, holding back more sobs as they were led back through the doors.

" Keith is still alive; we managed to pump his stomach and remove the toxin from him before he could digest it." The doctor explained. " If he'd been injected with it, he definitely wouldn't have made it. But he got lucky. His stomach lining and esophagus are damaged, but not to the point where it is fatal. His body will naturally repair the cells in a matter of time." He said.

Lance felt like he had been holding his breath for hours, and he was finally able to breathe again.

" So he's okay?" Shiro's face became less tense.

" Where is he?? I need to see him." Lance asked, talking very fast.

" You see... you'll be able to see him. But he isn't here." The doctor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. " He's here... but he's not here here."

" What?"

" Soon after we got the toxin from his body, Keith fell into a coma. We haven't really dealt with this type of poison before, so I honestly have no clue how long he'll be under for. It could be a few days to months." He cringed while delivering the news.

" WHAT?!!" Lance panicked.

In the waiting room, everyone had their faces pressed up against the glass to watch Lance, Shiro, and the doctor. Pidge was on her brother's back because she was too short to see on her own. Everyone flinched back hearing Lance almost scream.

" What if he never wakes up?!!!" He freaked out.

" Comas are very unpredictable, I'm sorry." The doctor said. " It's up to you if you'd like to bring everyone else with you to see him."

" Yeah... they can come." Shiro blinked back tears, and his voice was almost smothered as he tried to prevent from sobbing.

" He's in room 589. Would you like me to wait for them?" The doctor asked, and Lance looked to Shiro with a still quivering lip.

" I'll go talk to everyone... Lance, you go." Shiro said weakly. He was completely broken while staring at the other alpha and giving him a nod.

As Lance followed the doctor, his legs felt like cinderblocks as he lugged them along. His chest was empty, and his arms were trembling. How could he let this happen? He'd literally handed him the poison, let him drink it.

He soon stood in the doorway, and the doctor gave him a sympathetic look while walking back down the hall. And Lance was left on his own as he stepped into the room, which was dimly lit. There were strikes of lightning flashing outside as he finally got to see his omega, who didn't react like he otherwise would have.

His face was free from emotion, and he was propped up on a pillow to keep him steady. His finger had a monitor clamped on it, and the beat of his heart was spelled out in steady beeps.

" Keith..." Lance came forward, choking on his own whimpers. He couldn't stop the trails of water running down his face as he pulled up a chair to the bedside.

Obviously the smaller boy couldn't respond as he laid there. He couldn't itch the hospital gown that presumably felt starchy on his skin. Keith couldn't tell Lance he loved him. He couldn't even show him that he was there.

Lance grabbed Keith's hand, holding it, being thankful that it was still warm and not void of life.

" I love you... I love you so much!" He cried brokenly. What had Lotor done?!

Lance was squeezing his hand like he'd never let go ever again, refusing to take it for granted. He was breathing heavily, but then he paused.

The beeping on the heart monitor was speeding up slightly, going at a faster rate than before. The alpha looked at him, attentively focusing. Then the pace slowed back down into a more calm beat.

Could Keith... hear him? Or at least know that he was there?

" Babe... I'm here... please come back to me." He couldn't help but beg. Lance seemed like he was crazy, like he was wasting his time and talking to a brick wall. But he didn't care. " Please..." The alpha leaned down, pressing a shaky kiss to Keith's forehead. At the same time, he was massaging circles on the smaller boy's hand with his thumb.

More thunder rumbled outside, and Lance never thought he'd see the day when he wanted Keith to be crying in his arms. He wanted the omega to be having panic attacks, and looking to him for comfort. He needed it. Call it selfish, but it was still better than watching Keith lay there like that.

There was a gasp from the door as Allura and Shiro walked in. The cheer captain had finally given in to her tears, and she was now allowing them to slide down her cheeks. She had her hands over her mouth, which was open in disbelief. And Shiro was pained to keep his eyes open. He was just waiting to wake up in his bed, panting, and remembering all of this as a very vivid nightmare. But he'd pinched himself too many times for this not to be real.

" He looks dead!" Pidge yelled, crying into her hands as her and Matt came into the packed room as well. " HE LOOKS FUCKING DEAD!"

" Shhh..." Matt hugged her, and she once again was soaking the front of his shirt with tears. Hopefully they weren't going to wake up anyone in the adjacent rooms who happened to be sleeping. " It's all going to be okay..."

Lance didn't say a word as he sniffled, burying his face into the bedsheets beside Keith's head. The sound of him weeping was the most awful thing. It was like a cross between a wounded animal, and a hysterical mother who'd just lost their child. He was an absolute mess.

As the others got closer to the bed, Lance started growling at them. Like hell he was letting anyone touch his omega right then, not when he was in such a fragile state. Shiro dirty looked him and ignored the warning.

" Lance, I'm his brother, I can get near him all I want." He said while kneeling at Keith's bedside. Lance eased, but he was still on guard due to his alpha instincts. " I'm not the enemy here."

Everyone else kept their distance, not wanting Lance to bite their heads off. Hunk and Shay were hugging in the doorway, both crying violently. Allura was in shock, and Pidge was ready to snap Lotor's neck when and if she could get her tiny hands on him.

...

Slowly, everyone was calming down from their fits of sobbing into dismal puddles of people. Lance and Shiro looked the worst out of everyone, and next up were Allura and Pidge. Allura was covered in runny mascara and her eyeliner had smudged into a muddled, clouded mess on her face. The rain helped with that, but the primary cause was her crying.

Then there was Pidge, who was separated from the rest of the world. She was staring off into space, almost out of touch with everything. The only thing that kept her from being numb was the burning rage that was boiling inside of her.

Matt, Shay, and Hunk had barely uttered any words for the past hour. They had no clue what to say, all three of them feeling as though the wind had been knocked from them.

There were a couple knocks on the door, and a nurse walked in. He looked extremely apprehensive upon smelling the room, which was filled with Lance's dominant and protective pheromones.

" Hello, my name is Jeremy. I'm going to be Keith's nurse for the night, I was stopping by to tell you all that visiting hours end in about five minutes." He said, knowing that this might be a problem. His body figure was slender, but he was somewhat tall as he stood in the doorway, and they all stared at him.

" You don't understand... I can't leave him here alone. I won't. Keith needs me." Lance told him in a voice that mimicked what a zombie's would've sounded like. His face was in shambles, and his normally bright eyes were dull as he gazed his omega's motionless, unconscious body.

" Please, can't you make some sort of exception?" Shiro asked him. " He's my brother... I can't just go home."

The nurse looked very pressed, and he sympathized with them greatly. He knew it could get him in trouble, but he was the only one who would be coming in and out of that room for the next 12 hours.

" Look, I'm really not supposed to do this, but..." Jeremy trailed off, seeing the very deep bonding mark on Keith's neck. That's when it hit him, the other boy was this kid's alpha. " Two of you can stay as long as you don't make a lot of noise. Only two, though." He said while writing his name on a little whiteboard in the room. He had to sign in of course.

" Thank you so much..." Shiro's voice cracked as he talked. And Jeremy only nodded at him while walking back out.

Lance would've showed his manners, but he couldn't focus on anything other than Keith right then. He slowly stroked his hair, raking his fingers through Keith's mullet and letting his eyebrows furrow somberly.

" I'm guessing that's our cue to go..." Allura cleared her throat, though she would've stayed if she could.

" Yeah, to go right down to the fucking police station." Pidge said, and fire was ignited behind her eyes while she spoke. " We have evidence of him conspiring, so they technically have to arrest him."

" If they can find him." Matt facepalmed. " He probably skipped town."

" I don't care!" Pidge snapped. " I'll walk there if nobody wants to come with me." She scanned the room, gauging everyone's faces.

" I'll drive you there... but we have to find Acxa first." Allura stopped staring at the tile floor and gave Pidge a supportive look. This was for Keith. For Lance. For everyone else that Lotor had fucked with, tormented, or broken.

Shiro's phone began to ring, and he pulled it from his pocket.

" It's the police." He told everyone, and they all perked up. Even Lance, who hadn't been concerned with anything else besides Keith for hours on end. " Hello? Takashi speaking..." Shiro's eyes were progressively widening the more he listened to the phone. He lifted a hand to place it over his mouth. " I see... so she's confessed?" He made another face, an indistinguishable one. " What are the charges?"

It was a few minutes later when the phone call was finally over.

" Well?" Pidge asked him anxiously.

" Acxa already went to the police station. She outed herself and admitted to leaking the video, and to purposely injuring Keith at cheer practice. It was part of the deal for arresting Lotor." Shiro sighed.

" You're saying she threw herself under the bus for us?" Lance looked at Shiro, shocked.

" Exactly. She showed them the recording of Lotor planning, and the bruises, and gave a statement about what went on after the Voice Memo ended." Shiro's voice was shaky. " We-we got him..." He chuckled to himself creepily.

" What is he charged with?" Lance's eyes were yet again beading.

" Battery, criminal damage to property, breaking and entering, theft, harassment, trespassing and violating a protective order, and attempted murder." He said, looking down at Keith while listing off all the things. " He's looking at 40 years in prison if he takes a plea deal."

There was a little spark of satisfaction on everyone's faces while hearing that. Lotor was done for. Acxa had finally gotten the cops to do their jobs.

" But wait... how do we know that his dad won't bail him out?" Lance asked, worry lacing his voice.

" The bail is set really high, there's no way Zarkon can spring for it." The older brother assured, and he couldn't say that he'd be sleeping easy because of this. But it definitely helped.

" You hear that, Babe? He can't hurt us anymore..." Lance whispered in Keith's ear, hoping with all of his being that the boy could hear him. Or at least know he was there, holding his hand and refusing to move even if the sky fell around them.

Shiro tried his best not to cry seeing Lance talk to Keith. He choked up, knowing that the other alpha really would do anything for his brother. It wasn't a sudden realization, but it still was hard for him to witness. He doubted Keith could hear a word Lance said.

...

All Keith's visitors besides Lance and Shiro had all ridden home with Allura. And neither of the alphas were expecting to sleep that night. Both of them were far too heartbroken to get a second of shut eye, especially Lance, who continued stroking Keith's hair and whispering to him.

" When you wake up, we're going to go up to your room, and we're going to watch Tokyo Ghoul, or Orange is the New Black, or Stranger Things... whatever you want to do. And you can sleep in your own bed. And you can put as much syrup on your pancakes as you want and I promise I won't make fun of you for it anymore." The football player's voice wavered sometimes, but he couldn't help it. " We can go to Starbucks every morning... I'll do anything you want. Just please come back... I'm homesick."

" Lance... give it a rest." Shiro told him while leaning his head back on the wall. " He can't hear you."

Lance's eye twitched.

" Yes he can! He can hear every damn word!" He snarled, snippy in a matter of seconds.

" I'm sorry... but please.. you need to come to terms with this." Shiro facepalmed, seeming somewhat cold though he was hurting severely on the inside.

" He can hear me... and he can hear you too... so watch what you say." Lance's features angled into a frown as he kissed his omega's cheek softly. " We're waiting for you..." He whispered.

(( Yet again I find myself in tears thanks to this book. Where can I find me someone as amazing as Lance? Anyways, I'm so thankful for everyone voting and commenting on my fanfiction! Your support has really increased my confidence as a writer! Thank you for almost 100K views, Loves. I'll be back with another chapter soon.))